


Unexpected [Merman!Mako x Handicap!Fem!Reader]

by BabyPandu



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Disabled Character, Disabled Reader, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Reader-Insert, citizen au, handicap reader, mermaid, merman mako, seaworld like setting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-21 01:48:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10675185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BabyPandu/pseuds/BabyPandu
Summary: You were once the worlds best marine life trainer and performer! Loving the time you spend with the orcas, dolphins and other beautiful animals. But that all went crashing down the day you lost your leg to one of the animals you loved. After two years your finally back at work, but your forbidden to swim. Only to on the side training, at least you get to work with the new merman.





	1. Old Habits Die Hard

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Other Side Of The Glass](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10590090) by [NaughtyBees](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NaughtyBees/pseuds/NaughtyBees). 



> naughtybees I still blame you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this point I need help. I may have an unhealthy obsession with the junkers, maybe leaning towards Roadhog at this point. I have another idea after this that I'll be posting within the next few days, it's gonna be another Mako one. He's gonna be pretty big, 42 feet long from head to the end of his tail. His top half is around 12 feet tall.
> 
>  
> 
> And I was wondering, I'm having some financial issues right now, and wanted to know if you guys would be interested in a patreon reward for seeing chapters. Probably like $5.oo or something for chapters like a month in advance?

The first day back after a big accident was always hard, especially after two years. It had taken a lot of physical therapy before you could get to using your new prosthetic leg. It was even harder now being back doing the thing you loved, without really doing the thing you loved. You worked at a marine theme park called Marine Mania. You worked here for three years after graduating from the Marine Life Institution. Being in the water with these animals was your life. But it was all taken away after your accident. 

You lost your right leg then. It was hard, being betrayed by the huge majestic animal that you loved. But that was all in the past. What was done was done. You were back at work after two long years. It was wonderful, you got to be near the water.. though you couldn't get in, you still go to help train. You had no idea how they wanted you to do that without being able to get in. But you would figure it out. 

With your old training suit on you made your way out to the stage. You look around what use to be your favorite place. It all looked so small now. Over the past two years it had been upgraded to be bigger, holding the worlds first caught mermaid. You still had a hard time believing that. A mermaid. You had studded marine biology for nearly 20 years of your 25 year old life and mermaids were always just in fairy tales. Until you came back here. 

The mermaid had yet to show itself. The pool it was in was huge. Roughly four times the size it was before you left. They said they had to make more room for it, it was fairly large. Around the size of a fully grown killer whale. That was a bit bigger than you would have expected from a mermaid. You tried not to think about it much as you moved to the edge of the pool with a bucket of cold dead fish to feed the mermaid with. You looked around a bit, it was quiet. You stayed after longer, having been given the keys to lock up. They trusted you even after two years, it made you feel a little happier about the situation. The last people left the part a while ago. The only other people on the grounds were the ones tending to the penguins on the other side of the park. 

Leaving you alone with the fishes. 

You sat down with your legs in the water, you liked giving the animals the fish face to face. But this mermaid didn't want to show himself. Sighing softly you threw a few fish into the water. It was quiet and you felt your chest aching. Your legs in the water wasn't enough to cope with what you lost. Your prosthetic was cold and lifeless, it would drag you under faster than you could swim up with your other limps. It was heavy, made of water proof metal. You were glad you had it, but you still missed swimming.

When you emptied your bucket of fish into the pool you sighed again. Lonely. Moving to get up, you pull your leg off, only to scream when you yanked it stuck against the side of the pool. Blood dripped into the water from where your prosthetic connected to your leg, in a panic to get your bleeding leg out of the water you slip on the side of the stage, splashing into the pool with nothing to stop you. 

As you feared you would, you sank, like a rock. Your heavy metal leg drug you down past the trail of blood your leg left. Being trained for over three years in how to handle a bad situation you kept hold of your breath, you could hold your breath for 10 minutes if you really needed to. You hoped it wouldn't come to that. You found yourself at the bottom of the pool, your leg keeping you immobile, weighed down and in pain. You looked around the tank in some hope to find a ladder out or anything. It didn't look to be the case. 

You were getting desperate. It had been a few minutes, or so you thought at least. Time was confusing in panic as you were. Your chest didn't quite burn yet but it did start to ache a bit. Your lungs wanting new air, but you hadn't the means to provide. The current began to change, moving strong enough to knock you back a bit. In the blurry dim light of the water you could see it then. The mermaid.

Or you should say Merman. 

And he was huge.

Huge was an understatement. You were expecting orca sized but this guy looked like he could take a pod out with just the wave of a webbed clawed hand. Just the size of his head dwarfed you, the current of him swimming knocked you back. He was heading right for you, circling around you some. You took the time to notice his tail. The long thick shape, muscles ripped with each wave. The dorsal fins, the anal fins, the side to side motion of the tail... it was too familiar in a nerve wrecking way. The color...a dark grey with a white under belly.

Of all things why shark, from what you assume a great white. A great white shark of all things this merman had to be half of. He seemed to be done inspecting you just like you had been doing to him. You watched as he turned again, swimming ever so carefully towards you. Giant gills flexed, a huge nose inhaling your blood as it floated up. You did your best to stay still when he approached. His giant face looming over you, only inches away now. It felt like your heart had stopped in your chest. If this giant marine miracle decided to, you could be a midnight snack now, and no one would know. 

But he did nothing, moments passed with his dark black eyes fixed on you. Slowly and carefully you began to reach out a hand towards him. He snorted, sending a flurry of bubbles at you. You stopped moving, waiting for him to calm down, keeping your hand still. Your chest started to burn at this point. He was your only hope. You needed to get his trust and hope he would help you.

It felt like an eternity before he finally moved forward a bit, his nose pushing against your palm. Time was a blur at this point, you coughed. What little air you had left you then. Your lungs were on fire, your head felt light, fighting every instinct you had to breath in. The titans merman before you seemed to sense your struggle for life, two giant hands began to carve through the water towards you.

Fingers almost as long as your entire body wrap around you, his thumb roughly pressed into your middle to hold onto you. More bubbles spurt from your mouth, on instinct you took a sharp breath in and instantly regret. You try to cough the water out but only breath more in. Another huge hand cup around you, blinding you from the world around you. The current gets stronger as you feel yourself being moved through the water. 

It was only moments before you felt the relief of ice cold air around you. Tumbling off his hand and back onto the stage you sputter and cough out the even colder water. If your lungs were on fire before they were completely formed of lava now. Every muscle of your body was numb, shaking violently to try and expel the salty liquid from your body. A few strong taps on your back from one of the giant merman helped you cough up the water. You sat there a moment, taking in everything that happened and working on catching your breath.

After a few minutes you turn a bit, he had been so quiet that you wondered if he was even still there. When you turned you saw his face resting on the edge of the stage, clawed fingers gripping the sides of the platform. His eyes were entirely black, just like the sharks he was part of. He watched you, waiting.

In an attempt to stand you wince, falling down again on your prosthetic. You start to take off the metal prosthetic limp. Taking some time, your hands shaking from the numbness and the pain. Once it clicked off you moved it to the side and gasped in pain as cold air rushed against the scraped up stub. You heard the giant being seemingly give a deep groan. You heard the water move, looking up he was gone. 

What just happened?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this was kinda short but this is more of an introduction. Please let me know how you guys feel about the whole patreon thing. If you guys think that sounds good, then I'll get started on that tonight.


	2. Back to the Water

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mermaaaan. This is a long chapter. I didn't mean to make it this long....
> 
> Thinking of doing a pred/prey story next (vore). I dunno. I also have another idea... well two more...gesh. help me please. anyone like pred/prey? would it fit in this one?
> 
> (hmmmmmmm if you dont like Lincoln park that's just to bad. Song being played by your character is called 'Waiting for the End' by Lincoln park.)

You wanted to see him again.

It had been a week since you started working again. A week since you saw the merman. Yes you couldn't think of anything else. You wanted to learn more about him. But he kept to himself most of the time. No matter what you did to get his attention, he wouldn't come out. You had done everything you could think of... other than get back in the pool again. 

Before your dip in a week ago you had been yearning to get back into the water, but now... You didn't know. You were scared to. You had never been afraid of water until now. Maybe it wasn't the water. Perhaps it was the giant miracle of nature lurking in the water. 

You sat on a catwalk, moving over just a few feet above the water. The bridge stretching from the stage out to the backstage area. Your legs hug over the side of the catwalk, your chin resting on the railing with your arms hanging over. You close your eyes as you sigh, your legs dangle barley touching the top of the water. The sun was setting, but you didn't want to go home. You weren't going to be getting any overtime for this, but you didn't care, and it wasn't like you had anyone to go home to. You only cared about your job before, and this merman wasn't helping your addiction now.

You had taken off your prosthetic just in case you had another accident. It would at least give you a chance to swim up, or whatever your one legged-ness would allow you to do. When you open your eyes you notice a shadow under you. The current shifted with strength. You push yourself up a bit and look over the railing. He was gone..

Behind you was a distend splash, turning you see him. His head barley peeking above the water at you. Why now? You had been trying all day... maybe that was the problem. Maybe he was a night time kinda guy. You watched quietly as he submerged, watching as his form moved under the water towards you. He circled around you for a few minutes. They had been the longest minutes of your life.

You stayed as still as possible when you watched him surface ten feet away, a small wave of water splashing against your leg. His eyes looked more human like, being the only thing above the water. A dark brown, so dark they were almost black. A surprising contrast to what you saw a week before. He watched you for a moment, quietly stalking.

"Hello." You manage softly after some time. You thought everything would remain silent again but then game a low deep groan, vibrating through the water from him. 

"Hi."

He spoke. This giant being could speak. But why did you think he could. He is half human. That still didn't mean you knew how to respond. Your hands clung to the tight to the metal railing, so tight that your knuckles paled.

"I never got to thank you for saving me before." you say, cringing when you hear the fearful crack of your voice. 

He gave a throaty hum. "Be more careful." 

You gave a nod."I will. It's just been a while since I've worked here..."

He rose a bit more in the water, making his way to the stage. He pulled a massive arm out of the water and rested it atop the stage. Now fully able to see his head and part of his chest in the dim stage lights you took your chance to study over him. He looked like a heavier set guy, a rounded but rough face. He motioned you over. 

It took you a moment to take in his motioning of you to come over but you did, hesitantly pulling yourself up. You didn't bother with the prosthetic, you could one leg hobble just fine. Using the railing as balance you hopped your way close to him. He was now only a few feet away from you. It was mesmerizing, he was quite a bit taller than you with just his head and shoulder out of the water. Once over you took your seat back down on the catwalk. 

"I've been here almost a year... I've never seen you." He mumbled after another few minutes of torturing silence. 

"I was a trainer for the orcas a few years ago... but..." You looked down at your stub. It wasn't even bit off at the knee... in the middle of your thigh... You gulp, hands shaking as you find it hard to get your mind of the event.

"I see." He said, his thundering voice pulling you out of your terrified self trance. "Names Mako."

You studder your name with a smile."Nice to meet you Mako.."

"Like wise." He said, followed by yet another couple minutes of pure torturing silence. You didn't dare make eye contact, concentrating on the whites of your knuckles as you gripped tightly at the bars of the cat walk. 

"What made you come back here?" 

The question made you smile for some reason, you had been hearing it a lot since you came back. If the smile was more happy or sad you couldn't really tell.

"Guess I couldn't stay away.... I spent every moment of my life learning and training to work here. My dream had been to work with marine life here and swim around... Even if I can't really swim anymore, not coming back would have been a waste of 23 years.." 

You hadn't even noticed how much you rambled on with your answer for his question, your cheeks flushed as you peek up at him. His face was almost emotionless, his dark brown eyes peering down at you. 

"You didn't try swimming before you came back?" He asked, probably questioning the incident he saved me from a week ago. 

"No, I wasn't suppose to get in the water. They didn't issue me as a show trainer for you...just a trainer." I say with a shrug."Guess more of a caretaker, they don't expect you to do any shows or anything..." 

"Then why am I here?"

The question caught you off guard, he sounded a bit more ticked off by that. You only knew what you had been told. You looked at your own hands.

"I really don't know... " You manage to studder out.

"Do you think any of these animals want to be here?" He asked with more of a snarl in his voice. You could feel your body start to shake. "Do you know what I've been through in the last year? You think I want to have to be cared for by a pathetic crippled human like you."

You cringed away from him, tears forming in your eyes as you backed away from him. His thundering deep voice filled with venom. When you said nothing he gave a throaty growl before pushing off the side of the stage and diving into the water, in doing so sending a wave of water over the catwalk. Soaked and alone now tears streamed down your face. 

"Y..you don't think I know... what you guys go through.. I love marine life... more than I can bare.... I've seen the documentaries, I've seen it happen before me..." You say softly to yourself. " I just wanted to help.. I've only wanted to help."

Before you could speak more you nearly choked on your own tears as you tried to half crawl over to your prosthetic... to see that it wasn't there. The wave he made must have taken it into the pool. With blood shot eyes you pulled yourself up using the railing, you began to hobble down the cat walk back to the stage. Being careful you got back down and began to crawl best you could, not wanting to slip and fall in again... if you did... you didn't think he would save you this time.

It was going to be one difficult drive home.

_______________________________________

Another week went by. You had taken a Uber home that night, not trusting yourself to drive teary eyed and one legged. It was a hell of a night trying to get to sleep. The next day you had a friend of yours bring over a spare prosthetic leg. As you got to work you wondered, had you really been doing well here, making the impact you wanted to. 

You remember the first time you saw the documentary Blackfish. It showed all the horrible things done to orcas that were in captivity. Every detail etched in your mind since you were 10 years old. You knowing such beautiful creatures lived in such suffering. You worked everyday of your life so you could get to a place where you could help and prevent them from hurting... But where you doing that here? You made sure every animal was treated well but...what about other parks?... You didn't know anymore...

You'd kept your distance from the water, still going to the stage every night that week to feed him, but never getting close to the water. You felt like your spirit for ocean life had been taken away. You stayed onstage away from the water, doodling ocean life and filling out paperwork most of the day. You didn't feel like you were feeding him as much as you should have been, you were filling out more paperwork to order more food for him. You were feeding him as much as a fully grown orca but you were almost positive he was larger than that.

Once you filed out the order form you set it in the sleeve with the rest of today's papers before slipping it back into the binder. With little to nothing to do you pull out your phone and go to spotify. You scroll through your playlists, choosing one of your favorites by Lincoln Park. You turn the sounds on as the electric guitar plays, followed by a steady beat from the drum. You wait and tap your finger along to the beat before mumbling along to the beginning to the song, waiting for the chorus.

"Waiting for the end to come...Wishing I had strength to stand.... This is not what I had planned.... It's out of my control...." You sang out. You had never thought to care if you were a good singer or not, you simply liked to sing. Not like it would bother anyone. Most of the park was empty by now, you would probably close again. The song continues as you either hum or sing along while finishing up some of tomorrows papers. 

".... I know what it takes to move on.... I know how it feels to lie... All I want to do is trade this life for something new, holding on to what I haven't got..." You rock your head to the beat as you scribble some info on the health of Mako onto the paper. When you wrote his name it pained something in your chest. Confusion... regret... you felt like you missed him but you also felt like you never wanted to see him again. He made you face a dilemma in your life you didn't know you had. 

"How long were you in school?" A familiar deep voice rumbled.

Your head snapped up to look at the culprit, leaning on the stage, his head resting atop his arms. 

"What? Mako?! How long have you been there?" You asked quite shocked you hadn't heard him break the water. 

"Hmm...middle of the first chorus." He answered simply. "You seem to be oblivious when you sing, you have a nice voice." 

"Thanks..." You say softly, more confused than anything. Why was he here? Why now? "What are you doing here?"

"Hmmm, trapped in a concrete tank. Now I think I asked you something first." 

Flustered and a bit annoyed you look at him a moment. His voice was monotone other than his few sassy remarks, his face was straight and emotionless, his black eyes giving no hints to what he felt or his intentions. You thought back to his question, and only assumed he meant school for this job.

"I went to school at the Marine Institute for 5 years, before that I took marine biology classes in high school if that counts." You explained, thinking it over yourself. All together that was 7 years of school. 

He nodded. "Why did you want to do this?"

"I was hoping to help."

"Help what? Keep us trapped in little tanks and teach us to play fetch?" He asked, venom returned to his voice. 

You closed your eyes and took a deep breath, you couldn't let his words get under your skin this time. You wern't going to let him talk you down, not again.

"I know I'm not really doing a lot.. I can't keep them from taking you from your homes and family... I don't have that kind of power... But while your here.. I'll do my damned hardest to k make sure you don't live in pain... I've stopped the abuse here... I've kept all the animals fed... I've climbed my way up so I could help... I'm... I'm sorry I couldn't do more.."

Before you started speaking you knew you were going to speak no matter what came out of your mouth. Because now you just didn't know what you were doing to help if anything at all. Your hands clenched into violently trembling fists, covering your face with them. Tears streamed down your face as a broken sob left your mouth. 

"Thank you..." He mumbled.

You pry yourself from your hands to look over at him. This time he had his head turned, refusing to make eye contact. Did he feel bad for making you cry? It wasn't really his fault... he instigated it, but mostly you made yourself cry. You saw him move to leave and jumped into action.

Carefully you tried to stand."W-...wait, don't go."

He looked up to you,"why not?"

"I.. I mean... were both going.. to be working together.. for a while i presume... W..I mean... Wanna hang out?"

Why did it feel like you were asking him out. That's not what you meant at all, but did it come across that way?.. God this job never use be so stressful. His face didn't change as he studied over you, thinking about his options. He could leave now and it's not like you could do anything to stop it, but what would you do if he did choose to stay. You really needed to think things through more. 

"Alright. What did you have in mind?"

Shit.

"Well, I got a few movies on my phone. I could hook it up to the jumbotron up there and we could watch one."

"hmm... what's a movie?" He asked as you grabbed your phone and stood, having your prosthetic was still hard moving around on. You walked over to a wall and used a key on your work key ring to open up a panel in the wall. You pull out the control circuit and began to hook your phone up to it.

"Well... A movie can be a lot of things... most of the time they are a life action story played out to entertain an audience." You try your best to explain as you pull open your videos and flip through them... There was a few you didn't recognize, they saved from emails you had gotten in the past two years. Curious you tapped on it and played it. You moved back some, setting your phone on the panel, and looking up at the giant screen above the stage. 

It was black for a moment before you saw a fuzzy video of you and a few other trainers on the old stage that was here. Your eyes widen when you notice what it is. This was your final show, before the accident. You were stunned, frozen... you had never seen it... A documentary was being made about you to add on to the previous one blackfish, they sent you the clips for your parents to look at. Why was it saved on your videos.

You watched frozen in fear. Watching as you introduced the orcas...

'Now lets welcome in Tubu! He's our newest addition to the family! Why don't we all give him a warm welcome!?' 

"Is that you?...What is this?" Mako mumbled behind you.

You couldn't answer, because you didn't want it to be true. The film continued, tears fell from your already puffy eyes. It was only moments later you heard your own voice shriek for help in the video. Blood pooled in the water, you saw Tubu surface with one of your legs lost in the huge orcas clamped tight jaw. You saw yourself through the fuzzy video quality, panicking but trying to console the orca, calm him down to let you go. You could remember it without the videos help.

But people around began to scream, taking pictures with flash and yelling. How did they think they were helping... They only made him more scared.. then a popping crack sounded softly but you knew what it was... It was like you could feel the pain all over again. Agonizing pain as your legs was bit off by dully sharp teeth, the giant mammal ramming over you as he swam away. You fell to your knees, shaking softly and silently as you cried. 

The documentary scene continued to a part where you were talking with an interviewer a few months later.

"So what do you think made Tubu go savage?" The interviewer asked.

"What?... Savage. That beautiful creature was anything but savage. He was scared, terrified."

"Why?"

"Why?! Because this was the third park was moved to, 19 years old. Taken from his mother when he was a baby, beaten at every other park he had been to by horrible people. then he came to Marine Land and it wasn't any better!"

"Why not?" The interviewer continued."Did you and the other trainers not treat him well."

"I made sure we all did. I took the job as lead trainer to make sure of that."

"Why do you think this incident happened then?"

"He was being abused by the other orcas. Unfortunately we didn't notice until a few days before all of this... We were going to move him to his own tank that weekend but.. We should have done it sooner.... God its all my fault..."

You heard yourself begin to cry in the video. 

"Hey turn the camera off... I said turn it off.. I'm trying..." The video ended after a few people argued about the camera.

Everything was so quiet now yet you couldn't help but sob. This went on for a while before you heard Mako grumble behind you.

"Go turn on that song you had before." He demanded. 

Looking up at him you were going to argue that you didn't want to but he only looked at you with his dark eyes and motioned his head to the panel. You nod and push yourself up, unlocking your phone and going back to spotify, turning the song on repeat. The guitar started as you made your way back, as you sat the giant mer spoke again.

"Take off that prosthetic, it's trash." He said simply. Not wanting to argue you did so, messing with some of the latches before it clicked off. After doing so a giant scale patched hand loomed over you, after watching that you were a big jumpy and flinched away with a whimper. "Calm down... I'm not going to hurt you."

Two weeks ago when Mako had saved you from drowning you hadn't noticed how odd his skin felt. The patches of scales weren't hard but they were a contrasting smooth compared the skin they were against. Leathery soft skin against hard smooth scales was odd but covered his skin. 

He cupped his hand around your back and pulled you towards the edge of the tank, stopping at the edge. He had moved back some, allowing you to let your leg fall in the water. The hand cupped around you moved so a finger gently lifted up your stump. He let himself sink some, now more eye level with you. Giant eyes studied the rounded and a little deformed stump that remained.

"The others working here use to talk great of you... from what I could hear at least. When I was in the holding tanks they spoke to me about you, saying how I would have to wait but I would have the best trainer when she came back. It made me angry, knowing that I would have someone training me like some kind of show animal... So when I first saw you at the bottom of this tank, I was angry.." His deep voice prattled on, this had been the most he ever spoke to you. You dared not to interrupt. "But.. I saw this-"

He gently lifted your stump to gesture what he spoke about.

"-and I was confused how you had been the best trainer they had... and why they would speak so highly of someone that couldn't even swim... But in that video.. before the accident... I could see, how well you worked with the other creatures of the ocean... I had never seen orcas so willing to preform... they looked happy. You did your job amazing...but like you said after... Tubu was a scared beast. You did your best though... It wasn't your fault."

You rubbed your eyes roughly as he spoke. No one had told you that in all two years. It had never been about your leg. Sure that added onto it, making it difficult and almost unable to move back to your job... But Tubu had to be put down after he swallowed your leg. He didn't divisive that...

Mako was quiet, silently looking at your stump. He soon gave a deep hum,"would you like to swim with me?"

"I.. I can't-."

"Your going to let a missing leg keep you from swimming?" the merman sneered. But as he said this, you noticed a hint of a smile on his face. 

"I guess not.." 

"I'll help you." He said, back to small sentences. Slowly he moved a finger next to you, with hesitation you reached out and clung to it. Your heart rammed in your chest, with little effort he pulled you into the water. He kept his finger against the top of the water, making it easy to use it to keep yourself above the water. You found it exceedingly difficult keep yourself up with your own legs though, your stump was hard to move and made more frantic movements under the water. You felt unbalanced just being yourself.

"Just calm down, don't move your legs." Mako instructed. 

You nod and do as he says.

"You're going to have to do longer strokes with your bad leg, as well as use your arm on that side to keep you balanced while under.."

You nod, understanding, but still frantic when he began to pull his hand away. "I'll be right here, I won't let you drown."

No time to even nod you sunk under, trying to regain yourself and use your arms to keep yourself upright. Move your stump in constant strong movements was easier said than done. Even after physical therapy you could barley feel what was left of your leg past your hip. It felt like a few minutes before the scaly leather pushed against your middle. Taking hold and taking deep breaths after he pulled you back up.

"I didn't expect you to get it on the first try. We'll work on it." Mako said with another small smile. You found yourself smiling up in return. "How about I just swim you around for now... hold onto my dorsal fin?"

You felt your smile become happier as you nod. It must have taken him a lot to offer that, but you missed doing that with the dolphins and orcas. He grunts and give you a nod in return. He gently moved you around until his arm was awkwardly bent behind him, as close as he could get to the large dorsal fin on his back. It was perfectly placed just above the middle of his back, aligned with his spine. You could admire him later, now it was time to ride. 

Reaching out you pulled yourself from his index finger over to the top of his dorsal fin. He rolled his shoulders some, you could feel the smile on his face bigger than before even with him facing away from you.

"If you need air, tap me with the stump a few times, k (Y/N)?"

"Alright Mako." 

You can tell his movements are more careful with you clung to his back, pushing himself and you under the water with his hand on the stage. Taking a breath before you go under it takes your eyes a moment to adjust to the salty water. Once you could kind of see through the semi-clear water. Your hands clung to the base of his dorsal fin, muscle memory from when you would train with the orcas. Your heart fluttered from the familiar feelings flooding back. The love of the animals, the water, the thrill of swimming with them.

The current moved around you when Mako began to swim, his movements a bit more powerful from the orcas. With two years of not doing this is was a bit harder to hold on than you would have liked. Your hands nearly slipped off twice, you tried to focus on the moment and what was happening. You watch Mako, he was just amazing. His hair was greying at the roots a little bit but the rest of it was a dark black. Looking back you study him... how his human torso disappeared into the shark tail. The muscles under the rubbery skin rhythmically as he swam. It was mesmerizing. 

You spent so long watching him in motion you almost didn't feel the burning start in your chest. Taking that as a time for a break you tapped his back with your stump like he instructed. He slowed and looked back at you. Your eyes locked for a moment, breaking it he nodded and began to swim up. His body a platform under you as he stayed horizontal in the water. You took deep breaths to regain yourself from staying under almost too long. 

Before you could react he was turning over in the water, tossing you in without warning. On instinct you clung to his fin and moved your good leg as well as you could to keep yourself up. Holding your breath again you blinked to see, he was indeed laying stomach up atop the water now. Looking around you watched as one of his giant hands reached back and gently took hold of you, pulling you out of the water. You coughed some, having taken in some water on mistake when he turned over.

"You alright?"He asked, setting you down atop his bulging gut. 

A huge grin covered your face, you felt happier than you had ever felt since working at Marine land. 

"That was amazing! The way you swim! Your tail! You're amazing!" You found yourself exclaiming.

Mako chuckled lowly, shaking you a bit with your location. "If you say so. Any time you want to take a ride... just tell me ok?"

When you looked up you could see him smiling, a sharp toothed happy grin. 

"Alright, I'll keep that in mind. Thank you, Mako."

He gave a hum and a nod. "It's getting late."

You look, and indeed it it. The sun having already set giving way to the crescent moon and the stars.

"So it is..." You looked back to him, if you left now... would you have to wait days again before you could see him. "Will you be back tomorrow?... You could come out when I get the extra shipment of fish to give you."

He raises a brow to you and smiles. "Sure," he says simply, gently picking you up again and putting you on the stage. With you off of him he fixes himself to be properly upright in the water. You wave him goodbye and turn and before you hear him splash away in the water you hear him smugly say out."Sounds like a date."


End file.
